Saturday

All Day – Armory
Gaming Station
Grab a board game and play with friends (or make some new ones)!

11:00 AM – Panel Room
Saturday AM 2026 rollout – NEW MANGA, NEW VIDEOGAME, and NEW COLLECTIBLES!
NC’s premier Comics Publisher and the BIGGEST Black-owned manga publisher in the world, SATURDAY AM, debuts plans for hit series CLOCK STRIKER & APPLE BLACK across videogames, collectibles (which kind — come see — going to be a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT), and 1st details on our newest manga, including FANXBOY, the new series about an obsessive comic book fan out for revenge – Anchored by CLOCK STRIKER creator and Saturday AM founder, Frederick L. Jones.

11:00 AM – ComiQuest Film Festival
The Mask
Imagine Gumby meets Baryshnikov—and he’s s-s-s-smokin’! Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz star in this zany, high-energy comedy about a shy, bumbling bank teller who stumbles upon a mysterious mask that unleashes his wilder, cartoonish alter ego. With superpowers, outrageous antics, and a flair for the unpredictable, he becomes a force of chaos, leaving everyone—including himself—wondering just how far his newfound powers will take him and whether the city will survive his wild, unstoppable energy.

12:00 PM – Armory
Martial Arts Demo with Triangle Jiu Jitsu
Come see Heroes and Villains battle it out in epic hand to hand combat. Join Triangle Jiu-Jitsu for a martial arts demonstration showing off all your favorite super hero moves–including the super hero landing.

12:00 PM – Panel Room
Tough Guys Don’t Look Back at the Explosion
Larry Hama’s work on G. I. Joe and Wolverine in the 90s defined the characters for an entire generation. Fabian Nicieza co-created Deadpool and enlisted Marvel’s New Mutants into the bombastic X-Force. What did we think a tough guy was thirty years ago, and how do we think those characters have aged in the last thirty years?

1:00 PM – Armory
Martial Arts Demo with Triangle Jiu Jitsu
Come see Heroes and Villains battle it out in epic hand to hand combat. Join Triangle Jiu-Jitsu for a martial arts demonstration showing off all your favorite super hero moves–including the super hero landing.

1:00 PM – Panel Room
Color of Fandom presents: DC & Marvel Recap and Forecast
Some would say that superhero stories have run their course, but Marvel and DC have plenty up their sleeves with new characters and fresh takes on old favorites. Join us as we talk about some of the recent installments and anticipated projects in the works. We’ll also discuss some fan theories and characters that we hope to see make it to screen.

1:20 PM – ComiQuest Film Festival
The Iron Giant
October, 1957. Nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal) lives in Rockwell, Maine, a seemingly idyllic town. Hearing stories of a UFO that crashed into the sea, Hogarth, always on the lookout for mutant aliens, finds a huge, metal-eating robot (Vin Diesel) with an insatiable curiosity and equally insatiable appetite. But the extraterrestrial’s presence unleashes a wave of Cold War paranoia that threatens to engulf Rockwell unless Hogarth and his 50-foot friend can stop it.

1:30 PM – ComiQuest Film Festival
The Mask
Imagine Gumby meets Baryshnikov—and he’s s-s-s-smokin’! Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz star in this zany, high-energy comedy about a shy, bumbling bank teller who stumbles upon a mysterious mask that unleashes his wilder, cartoonish alter ego. With superpowers, outrageous antics, and a flair for the unpredictable, he becomes a force of chaos, leaving everyone—including himself—wondering just how far his newfound powers will take him and whether the city will survive his wild, unstoppable energy.

2:00 PM – Panel Room
Storytelling
How do artists take a great idea and turn that into the page you get to read? Come try it out yourself in this one-of-a-kind interactive experience! Audience members come up with the weirdest idea for a comic they can, and professional artists including Tommy Lee Edwards and Afua Richardson talk through how to put that onto a page, building a sketch together with you into an original work of art! This fan-favorite experience has left audiences laughing and inspired every year we’ve done it – don’t miss this one!

3:00 PM – Panel Room
Oni Press: Comics Artists in Conversation
Oni Press President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson and Sr. Sales Manager Michael Torma lead an in-depth conversation with the independent publisher’s award-winning cadre of guest cartoonists and illustrators – including Noah Bailey (High Strangeness, Station Grand), Lewis LaRosa (Punisher MAX, Carbon Based: The Art of Lewis LaRosa), and Matt Lesniewski (Faceless & The Family, The Freak) – in a wide-ranging conversation on the artistry, craft, and tools underpinning their visionary contributions to the comics medium.

4:00 PM – Panel Room
The Sinister and Sublime Art of Horror
Fear is a powerful, primal force – but it can be mastered. Summon the stuff of nightmares with creators who indulge in the dark, ferocious, and sometimes sanity-shattering art of horror: writer/podcaster Jeremy Whitley (Vampirella, Progressively Horrified), Harley Poe’s frontman and illustrator Joe Whiteford, and writer-director Cat Blackard (The Call of Cthulhu Mystery Program).

5:00 PM – Armory
Cosplay Showcase
Thrill to a costumed cavalcade of North Carolina’s best cosplay at the Annual Cosplay Showcase! Get here early and take pictures of your favorite characters in the clear spotlight, walking proudly across that Armory stage!

11:00 AM – Armory
Hey, Kids! Let’s Draw Comics!
We know you probably like reading comics if you’re at a Comicon, right? But have you thought about learning to draw your own? Artists Ron Garney and Chris Giarrusso want to talk to you about what it’s like to draw for a living and let you try some things out for yourself!

11:00 AM – Panel Room
Finding God In Comics
Finding God in Geek Culture! Hosts and friends from the podcast Systematic Geekology will lead this panel sharing and modeling how to have healthy and engaging conversations around our faith and those things we love to geek out on. At this panel we will share what we have been geeking out on lately and explore how to be “geekologists”, meaning – how to go deeper with our favorite fandoms.

12:00 PM – Armory
MAKING MANGA – Launching your manga or comic in today’s uncertain times.
NC’s premier Comics Publisher and the BIGGEST Black-owned manga publisher in the world, SATURDAY AM, promises to take the lid off of the hidden secrets of publishing — DIGITAL or PHYSICAL, DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS, BUILDING YOUR OWN IP, and LICENSING! Join Saturday AM publisher and CLOCK STRIKER creator, Frederick L. Jones as he shares data and answers your questions.

12:00 PM – Panel Room
Writing While the World’s On Fire
Writing While The World’s On Fire brings together Cat Blackard, Jeremy Whitley, Keith Knight, and Bayleigh Underwood for a candid conversation on storytelling as survival. From horror podcasts to comics that challenge injustice, these creators explore how art can be both refuge and resistance. Join them for a powerful discussion on making meaning—and making change—when the world feels unsteady.

1:00 PM – Armory
Geeking out with Fabian Nicieza
Fabian Nicieza has made a huge mark on the comics industry with work like co-creating Deadpool and writing teams like New Warriors, X-Force, and Thunderbolts. Join superfan Will Rose in a casual conversation about a career unlike any other!

1:00 PM – Panel Room
Color of Fandom presents: Horror for Wimps
From spooky stories to terrifying tales, join us as we talk about some of our favorite horror tropes and discuss the amazing storytelling capabilities within the genre. And if you’ve ever felt like horror just isn’t for you, we’ll make some movie, TV and book recommendations for even the wimpiest of fans!

2:00 PM – Armory
Larry Hama
Larry Hama defined comics for a generation with work like G.I. Joe and Wolverine’s solo book. Join us today for all the behind the scenes stories around building some of the industry’s most popular and enduring characters!

2:00 PM – ComiQuest Film Festival
Josie and the Pussycats
Hot newcomers Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook), Melody (Tara Reid), and Val (Rosario Dawson) are three small-town musicians with big dreams but little future. Then fate gives the Pussycats the chance of a lifetime when and manager Wyatt (Alan Cumming) of MegaRecords signs them overnight to an awesome recording contract. Suddenly, Josie and the Pussycats are living life in the fast lane with sold out concerts, #1 single, and global stardom. But it’s not a limousines and private jets. The Pussycats soon discover they’re being played like pawns in an evil plot by the record label’s maniacal CEO Fiona (Parker Posey) to control the youth of America.

2:20 PM – ComiQuest Film Festival
The Iron Giant
October, 1957. Nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal) lives in Rockwell, Maine, a seemingly idyllic town. Hearing stories of a UFO that crashed into the sea, Hogarth, always on the lookout for mutant aliens, finds a huge, metal-eating robot (Vin Diesel) with an insatiable curiosity and equally insatiable appetite. But the extraterrestrial’s presence unleashes a wave of Cold War paranoia that threatens to engulf Rockwell unless Hogarth and his 50-foot friend can stop it.

3:00 PM – Armory
The Wild Tarney Show
Welcome to The Wild Tarney Show! We surveyed 100 people at Comicon and we’ve got two families of contestants competing head to head to guess the most popular answers to comic related questions and prompts for a chance to win fabulous prizes. Join us in the Armory for Family Fun, Feuds, and Folly!

4:00 PM – Armory
Cosplay Crafter’s Contest
The best handcrafted Cosplay in the Carolinas is on full display for you here at the capstone of NC Comicon, the judged Crafter’s competition! See artists whose work has staggered our audiences year after year alongside the most talented new creators of our community, all in a glorious walking display across the Armory stage!

4:10 PM – ComiQuest Film Festival
The Mask
Imagine Gumby meets Baryshnikov—and he’s s-s-s-smokin’! Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz star in this zany, high-energy comedy about a shy, bumbling bank teller who stumbles upon a mysterious mask that unleashes his wilder, cartoonish alter ego. With superpowers, outrageous antics, and a flair for the unpredictable, he becomes a force of chaos, leaving everyone—including himself—wondering just how far his newfound powers will take him and whether the city will survive his wild, unstoppable energy.